


The first legwork

by EmmaSpencer



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Betrayal, Broken Mycroft, CIA, F/M, Gen, Hurt, Kidnapping, Legwork, Murder, Mycroft-centric, Rescue Missions, Russia, Torture, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-18 22:37:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10626573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmaSpencer/pseuds/EmmaSpencer
Summary: Out of university Mycroft started working, but things not going as he imagined. Once his talent is dicovered he quickly founds himself on his own, out in the field. His suspitions come true when he is captured and tortured. There is no one who would save him, or there is?





	

Freshly out of university, Mycroft started to work. Despite his intelligence he was barely a pencil pusher. He tried persuading his uncle to let him work properly, but he thought it was best not, at least not for now. Mycroft was furious; he avoided his uncle day and night. He was the first to leave the house and the last to come home. He was there two excruciatingly boring month when finally something came up. He was the only one left at the office that night, when a call came in. MI6 needed help with some translation. They couldn't identify the language. This is the chance he was waiting for, he will show them, what he is made of. Mycroft asked them to send it to him, there was no answer at the phone. He put it down disappointedly. He was about to go home when two men arrived with a sealed suitcase. They asked for Mycroft’s security clearance, which he did not have of course (pencils aren’t top secret you see.) He explained the gentlemen that at this time he is the only one who can be of their assistance. One of them grabbed him  
"Who do you think you are kid?"  
"The one who will save your asses" replied Mycroft with a cold smile. "Show me one sentence, just one. I tell you the language. The matter has to be pressing because they complied. He barely had to look at it; it was Russian, but not proper Russian. No surprise they didn't understand it, it was also coded.  
"Well gentlemen, this is Russian, and uses some kind of code. Give me the full document and 30 minutes maximum and I shall be able to give you the full translation.” For a moment he thought they going to throw him out of the window. One of them went aside to make a phone call.  
“Boss, there is no one here, just a kid; no proper clearances.”  
“What’s his name?”  
“His name is Mycroft Holmes.”  
“Oh; him. All right give it to him.”  
“All right kid, here are the papers”. Mycroft’s heart missed a beat. All right, let’s get started. At that moment they started to clean the office. Mycroft stand up angrily.  
“I can't work in this noise, I need quite. “ He rushed down to the reception. The two men followed him angrily “I need a quite room, where no one will bother me, best if there is no surveillance at any kind in it” He said without any introduction to the girl at the reception. Before she could ask anything, one of the men spoke.  
“Give him whatever he wants, NOW.”  
“I just need the room, paper, and pen.”  
“Well there is a place. It’s underground, out of use since ages. There is absolutely nothing down there.”  
“Perfect. Lead the way.” She wasn’t kidding it was empty, and cold. Mycroft picked a room in the middle, sat down and started to work. The two men were watching him from the corridor. The receptionist girl, Emily went back up to fetch some tea for him.  
“This not gonna end well you know that?” said the other girl at the reception, “They don’t like it when you act without orders. Your pretty boy can’t save you.”  
“I am aware of that, thank you. But it wouldn’t be a big loss.” She went back with the tea. Mycroft was surrounded by countless sheets of paper. Carefully not to disturb the pattern, she put the tea down near him. After 20 minutes Mycroft handed the papers to the men.  
“Here is the translation and my suggestion to solve the problem” He was tired, but satisfied with himself. The papers were taken from him, and he was closed in to the room. He didn’t bothered with the cold before, but now he started to shiver. He found the teapot, surprisingly the tea was still warm, and there were some cookies too. He spent the remainder of the night and the big part of the morning in there pacing to keep himself warm. Then footsteps broke the silence, six actually. His uncle’s, his boss’s, the two men from the previous day, the lady from the reception, and guessing, the man behind last night’s operation. The door flew open.  
“Mr. Holmes, thank you that was brilliant. I would like to borrow that brain of yours more often. I don’t know why they were hiding you; a man with your talent can not be locked away.” Alarm bells rang in Mycroft’s mind. 'What the hell they want with me?' The man continued to spoke, but he was too deep in his thoughts. 'Fieldwork!' He must have said it out loud, because everyone was looking at him.  
“Yes my dear boy, you start the training program tomorrow. During the day we put your brain to use, and after that train your body.” He smiled. “Well you will need a place to work, why don’t we go upstairs and find you an office?”  
“I want this one, no other will do, and I need a PA.”  
“Whatever you like; we have several talented secretaries, sure...”  
“I want her” Mycroft cut him off, pointing at Emily.  
“Well young lady it’s your lucky day. Lose a job, and find another. Well than you get settled in, and I’ll see you in my office 9 o’clock sharp. Good day!” with that they left.

Mycroft was left in his new office with his uncle, and his new PA. His Uncle stepped close to him, and slapped him so hard that his nose started to bleed. “Are you happy now?” He glared at him furiously. “I asked you to stay below the radar for a reason, you idiot boy. I just wanted to protect you. I know as soon as they find it out, they going to put you out there. They are going to use you in every way they can, and when they realise what you are really capable of, they going to be scared; and they are going to get rid of you in a painful way. I can guarantee you. Well I’m not going to watch it. From now on you will have to deal with everything on your own, that includes your brother too. Frank will bring your belongings here.” He walked out, without waiting for an answer. Mycroft stood in the middle of room, looking miserably. He didn’t notice that Emily was talking to him, she thought it’s best to leave his new boss there. She went to take care of the furniture, and other necessities for the new office, and also some tea. She managed to get her hands in some rejected furniture. Mycroft was still standing in the middle; she had to force him to a chair in the corner, so he won’t be in the way. His belongings arrived, he didn’t have much stuff. Mycroft closed the world totally out. He was trying to make sense of the events. He was never a big fan of legwork. 'Fieldwork! What are expecting of him, spying, stealing, and killing? How could I be so blind? Why didn’t Uncle Rudy tell me? It’s not going to end well. What is going to happen to Sherlock, how am I going to look after him? Oh, what have I done?' When he came around he was sitting in a taxi with suitcases, a box, and the girl from the reception; her new PA he corrected himself. She saw the confusion in his eyes.  
“Good afternoon Sir. My name is Emily Smith. I didn’t exactly know what to do with you; you zoned out. Looked like you have nowhere to go, so I thought you can use my spare room, till you find yourself a permanent place. Here I brought you my file; I thought you’d like to know more about your assistant. I got the office furnished, I collected, what I could found; there wasn’t much to choose from. You will have a computer and a phone by the morning, my brother works at IT, he'll make sure that none of it bugged.”  
The remainder of the ride was silent. Mycroft read her file. 'She was 24 years old, well she looks much younger. She was actually Dr. Emily Smith; doctor of medicine. Her field was forensic medicine; she did extensive research in it during her years at school. Her studies were founded by the agency, of course. But after she got her degree, they put her to the reception, what were they planning with her? She indeed has a brother, parents died, but other than that she is on her own.'  
It was a short ride; that is good, close to the office. Her place was a small apartment, two rooms, a tiny living room, mostly occupied by a cage, with a rabbit in it.  
“I hope you are not allergic? That is Lucifer, don’t worry she‘s not too noisy. That will be your room, Sir.”  
“Thank you, very much. But please it is your place; call me Mycroft, I think...” He drifted again.  
“All right Mycroft. When was the last time you ate anything? I have some leftovers if you’d like to eat.” Eating, well, he couldn’t really remember. She stopped his thoughts with pushing him into a chair and putting food in front of him. She wanted to talk with him, about the details of her job, requirements ect, but she could see that he was exhausted. So she left him alone. He was like a totally different man, from what she saw at work, there he was an iceberg, unreachable, heartless, and nothing could shake him. He was there just two months but this was the general opinion.  
The next month passed with busy work, and training. It was a project with the Americans. They had way accessing messages from a Russian organization that was tasked to create weapons of mass destruction. The messages included updates on the projects, test sides and outcomes, sometimes descriptions to make the weapons. It was Mycroft’s job to decipher those communications. One day Mr. Catch called Mycroft in to his office.  
“Well my dear boy, you are doing very well in your training. The day has come for you to try it out in real life. In two hours you will be put on a plane to Russia. You’ll have to infiltrate the organization, and take out the head scientist; he is causing too much damage. Everything you’ll need, you will get at the plane. Joe will take you there now. Goodbye and good luck.”  
“I just need to talk to my secretary for a second.”  
“No time for that, you leave now.” Mycroft was ushered to a car, taken to the plane, and he was on his way.  
'Where could he be? He had several meetings scheduled for today.' Emily was looking for her boss for a while, when she was called to Mr Catch’s office. “Miss Smith, thank you for your work, but you are not needed anymore.” She was quite confused.  
”But why Sir?”  
“We have reasons to believe that your boss will not come back from Russia.” He answered with a cold smile. “You can go now ;collect your possessions from the office and leave your pass at the gate. Good day” And like that she was dismissed. First she went to run to her brother, pretending to cry. Between sobs, she tells him her plan. First she needed to get Mycroft’s computer out, and she needed replacement, with a virus so on opening the right e-mail it will destroy the machine. She went downstairs, collected her, and Mycroft’s stuff. There was not too much thing to collect. She swapped the computers, then she packed everything in a box, in the bottom was the computer. She hoped no one will check the content of the box, and left the building still crying. Luckily, she was left alone.  
Now she needed to talk to Mycroft's uncle; as far as she knew he spends most of his time in the Diogenes club. She will need his help figuring out the situation. He was indeed there, but did not want to speak to her. She tried leaving a message, but no one would take it. On her way out she shouted “Look after Sherlock!” Hoping he'll hear it, and check on his nephew. It looked like she was on her own. She spent the next two day trying to find something on Mycroft’s computer that could help her understand the situation. There were the messages, the blueprints of the lab, the map of the town, information about the workers, quite detailed. She knew that there is no chance that she can help him on her own. Even if she finds a way, he can not come back to England. She was exhausted, she couldn’t think properly anymore; there was nothing she could do. So to rest her mind she decided to clean the rabbit’s cage. When she tipped it over she found discs taped to the bottom. There were files, notes, audio files, pictures. Mycroft collected everything that was needed to bring Mr. Catch down. A plan started to form in her mind.  
Mycroft's plane ride was quite. At landing he got a bag, and they sent him on his way. He knew the base was in the need of some lab technicians after last week's accident. He got the job, too easily. They put him to work immediately his first day was uneventful. He located the target, he even talked to him. Well it’s not that hard after all. Next day he had the night shift. He was working in one of the labs when the target approached him. Alarms rang in his mind, but he quickly dismissed them. They were alone, so Mycroft took the chance and executed the plan. Walking out of the lab the alarms rang even louder in his head. 'It’s not right, it was too easy.' They were waiting for him at the entrance. He was immediately knocked out. When he came around he was hanging by his hands, he couldn't see a thing because of teh bright lamp aimed him.  
“Good you are awake Mr. Holmes. I am Sergei, I think we are gonna become very great friends.” Mycroft couldn't see him, but he was sure he was smiling. “It’s going to be an easy business. We ask a question, and you answer. Acceptable?” Mycroft didn't answer. He was hit by a pipe in the stomach.  
“If you don't answer that, and more gonna happen. What do you say?” Mycroft had nothing to say; the punches continued. “Well my young friend it s not going to be pleasant for you whit this attitude.” With that they left him to think. 'Nothing broken; yet. How he could I be so stupid, of course they needed to get rid of me, I'm a threat to Mr. Catch. Uncle Rudy warned me, I should have listened to him. Idiot. Who is going to look after Sherlock now?' He was dragged back from his thoughts by a bucket of icy water.  
“Wakey, wakey, Mr. Holmes. Let's try it again.” The questions kept coming, this time they were using a whip. He tried to stay quiet, but after the third stroke he couldn’t, he was screaming. Sergei kept laughing, he even forgot about asking more questions. They continued until Mycroft passed out. Sergei stepped out from behind the lamp, and examined Mycroft’s back.  
“Nice work Nikolaj. They said he is the iceman, well he’s gonna break soon. Ice; it is so easy to destroy, there are so many ways. He will sing to us soon, very soon.”

It was the morning of the third day. She called Uncle Rudy’s office and left a message for him. 'Look under the fallen.' Packed Lucifer and took her to his brother, asking him that in the evening get her delivered to uncle Rudy’s house. She printed everything out, put it in her bag, and made a call. Luckily she remembered the number; she called countless times during the month. “'Hello who is it?”  
“'It's Antarctica.” the line ended. Now all she has to do is wait. Coat on, bag secured, door opened; they arrived quickly. Two men grabbed, and blindfolded her; she didn't resist, the ride took hours.  
Finally the blindfold came off her head; she was in an abandoned warehouse, with the two men, and a phone.  
“Who are you?”  
“Nobody, but for now I’m Antarctica, and you are Mr. Fox.” No answer. “I need help, he is missing. I have evidence that my side sold him out, and lead you by the nose. You never got the full translations, only fragments; the real important parts were kept from you. As I said I need help, in exchange I brought everything we collected, I know it won't be enough, but I’m sure we can negotiate it."  
“So you want us to get him out of the mess, he put himself in? Why would we do that?”  
“Well without him your operation would have failed on day one. He also helped you in several side quests; the serial killer, the train bomb, your wife’s affair. Shell I go on? You and everybody else need him, don’t try denying it. Hope and pray that the Russians haven't broken him already. He is the iceman, but he is not unbreakable.”  
“Keep the papers and get rid of her.” That was the only answer, with that the two men pulled out their guns.  
“Boys, boys that is a really bad idea”. She was quickly at the side of the first, disarmed him, before the other could react a shot through his wrist made him drop the gun, another to the knee to stay put. The first man also got one to the knee and to the elbow.  
“I believe your boys need medical help. Don't worry they are alive. Now Mr. Fox we should get back to our negotiation."  
“Who are you?”  
“I am Nobody. Well I thought you figured it out by now, god your men are even slower than ours.”  
“No, you can't be.”  
“Believe whatever you want, I need help.”  
“All right, I’ll help you, in exchange for the documents, and further assistance from the both of you."  
“Deal.”  
“Stay where you are, my man will meet you there.” 10 minutes later a young man arrived, and the unfortunate boys were taken away.  
“Good afternoon Miss. I’m assuming you have a plan.”  
“Sort of.”  
“Good we will discuss it on our way.”

 

“Our way in is Alexander Lev, he made some bad choices, so now he is on the watch list of the secret service; he knows it too. Currently he is collecting money to get out of the country with his wife and two children. Her brother lives in Sweden, that's where they are headed. We offer him enough money to get out in exchange for Antarctica. The town is close to the border, lots of small well hidden illegal ports and that is our way out. On Sundays there are very few personnel in the premises, and they leave it early.”  
”Today is Saturday.”  
“I know we need to hurry.”  
“There are too many assumptions in this whole ordeal.”  
“I know, and it's risky too. I'll handle Alexander; I'll just need someone for the getaway.”  
He spent the remainder of the journey making phone calls. “Looks like we have a solution, we offer him the money he needs to take his family out. A boat will take you out to meet a cruise ship heading Norway. There you will be taken to a military base; the boat has to leave latest at midnight. No waiting around.” They continued to work out the details.  
“Alexander usually leaves the base at 9; after that he walks straight home, he has to cross a park on his way, that's where we meet him."  
"How are you going to approach him?”  
“I’m going to be the distressed pregnant wife of the British prisoner.”  
"It's not going to work. How you'll explain knowing that he is there?"  
"I hope the mention of the money will make him forget about it."

 

She got to the park just in time. Alexander was walking deep in his thoughts when she approached him. “Mr. Lev.”  
“Who are you? What do you want?”  
“My name is Emily; I had reasons to believe you have my husband.” “Nonsense.” he tried to walk away.  
“Please, I just want to have him back, I have money, I can pay you a thousand dollar. Please help me. I have money, I can pay you...” She pleaded, with tears rolling down her face.  
“I m not saying it is true, but if, how are you planning to get out of the country.”  
"By boat.” He was thinking, thinking for too long, Emily started to worry.  
“There is a slim chance to get him out. I don't want the money; I want to go with you, me and my family. That is the only way I consider helping to you.”  
“Thank you. Tomorrow midnight, here’s the address. Thank you.”  
“I will send my family there earlier, even if I m not there, please take them out.” He hurriedly left the park.  
“That's not what we planned!” The American said as he emerged from the bushes.  
“I know, but this is the only way.”  
“He can not come with us, he has to stay.”  
“And how do you plan keeping him here?”  
“You’ll have to kill him if necessary, but he is not boarding that ship.”

 

Mycroft was alone when he next awoke. Every inch of his body ached, his mind was clouded. He had no idea how long he had been here. His senses didn't help him either; the light blinded him, he could smell cigarettes, cheap vodka, and he could only hear his own ragged breaths, and the clanking of the chains. They left him alone for quite a long time; the room was getting cooler and cooler. During the next session he lost a few nails, but he got new burn marks instead. The young man really enjoyed carving long lines with the heated metal; if Mycroft lost consciousness he waited for him to wake before starting a new line. He barely had voice after the constant screaming. ‘Pain, pain, pain.' there was nothing else in his mind. It pained him to breath, it was painful to think, but he didn't speak. Not because he was the good little soldier who wouldn't sell his country out. No, quite was the only thing still keeping him alive. Not that there was any chance of getting out. No one is coming..... his uncle warned him.

 

The next day has passed excruciatingly slow, it was half past eleven, and there was still no sign Alexander, his family just arrived. ‘Oh come on, where are you?’

 

They were back. They already forget about the questions, now they were doing it for fun, and because dear little Nikolaj needed to practice. For the first time Sergei stepped in to the light with a grim smile on his face and a knife in his hand.  
“Now my dear it's my turn.” He said stepping closer. He started to cut Mycroft's leg, slowly, pealing the skin off, cutting the muscles one by one. It took quite a long time; it was getting harder and harder to keep Mycroft awake. Finally the door opened.  
“It's time Sergei.”  
"Thank you, Alexander. Don't run off my dear, I’ll be back.” With that he left. Mycroft knew there was no other option, but to talk. ‘Sooner the better. After he talked they will kill him, if he stays quite the torture continues...No pain, that's sounds good. No pain.’ He got to the decision, when Sergei comes back he will start talking. He was brought back to reality by his body dropping to the ground. He screamed as he hit the ground.  
“Sshhhhh” a rag was stuffed in to his mouth. “Be quiet! Sorry about that but you need to be quite.” He was confused, who is it? What is he doing? The man grabbed him and carried him out of the room.  
Alexander hoped he will pass out, but Mycroft was still awake. God he needs to stay quite.  
“You are a lucky man, my friend. Your wife risked quite a lot to get you out” He whispered. His car was at parked near the building's entrance. He put Mycroft to the trunk, and drove to the gates.  
“Alexander, you are late!”  
“I know I had to hurry or my wife is going to kill me. See you in the morning.” He just drove out of the gate when Sergei’s car passed him. ‘Fuck! Why is he back, he should be miles away by now!’ He drove away with full throttle. ‘We had to get to the port. Why did he have to come back, oh god!’ They were close, gunshots were fired. One hit his ear. 'Fuck, hope they don’t hit the trunk. God, where are you, I’m trying to do the right thing now, please!’ He pleaded. Someone was listening, because he got through the level crossing, just moments before it closed. ‘Thank you.’ It wasn’t much, but this few minutes were all he needed.

 

Suddenly a car arrived to the port. Alexander got out bleeding.  
“What happened?”  
“Complications, he is in the trunk.” Emily rushed there to be greeted with Mycroft in a horrid state. They carefully took him out, and to the boat. Alexander was pushing his family on board, they were arguing.  
“What is it?”  
“Go! They followed me I'll keep them distracted. Go!”  
The journey was long; Mycroft was in quite bad shape. There was blood everywhere, cuts, burn marks, broken ribs, his leg destroyed, missing fingernails sure there were more. She couldn't do anything for him here; she had to wait till they got to the ship. So she sat there watching him breath, listening to the sobs of Alexander's wife and kids. On board of the cruise, she had a better look at the wounds. She and the cruise's doctor cleaned the wounds, a few were already infected, they started to give him, iv fluids, put him on oxygen, he got painkillers, antibiotics. Hopefully he will survive the journey. They were waiting for them at the port. According to the arrangements they were taken to a military base, it was in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Mycroft was taken to the town's hospital, and Emily met by Mr. Fox.  
“Mr. Fox thank you for your help.”  
“Don't forget Miss we have an agreement.”  
“I won’t.”  
“During your stay you are going to stay in the hospital. They are currently short of doctors, and would really appreciate if you could help out. If you need anything tell it to Dr. Martinson he will arrange it, if it's possible. I would like to ask you not to leave the town. The base commander will make sure that your stay is undisturbed. I need to leave now. I hope he will recover soon. Goodbye.”

“Good afternoon Miss, a car is waiting outside it will take you to the hospital.” the base commander stepped to her.  
“Thank you Sir. Is it possible for me to make a phone call, I would need a secure line.” She got the line, so she called Uncle Rudy.  
“Hello!”  
“Afternoon Sir, it's Nobody.”  
“Where are you?”  
“Norway. We got him out.”  
“We?”  
“I got help from the Americans, in exchange for the whole translations.”  
“And? “  
“I promised Mr. Fox that we are both going to help him if he needs it.”  
“Well it could have been worse. How is he?”  
“Not well, he was tortured for days.” No answer. “You got my message?”  
“Yes, and the package too. Don't worry it’s still alive. I need at least a month to do the cleaning. You stay where ever you are till that. Call me if there is any change.”  
“Sherlock?”  
“He's fine, haven't done anything stupid yet.” he ended the call.  
Emily spent her days working at hospital, she was glad she could occupy her mind with something. They were there a week, when she got the call that Mycroft finally woke up. He was awake and quite confused.  
“Morning Boss.” His eyes grow wider. “There is absolutely no need to panic. You are safe in a hospital. We are in Norway.” She could see the questions in his eye. “I will tell you the details later. Now you need to rest. Your brother is fine; your uncle is looking after him.” She added as he drifted back to sleep.  
His recovery was slow. Mycroft has given up on everything. Every day was a war, to make him eat, drink, get him do physiotherapy. He didn’t ask any questions, he barely spoke, when he finally spoke, he only asked one question.  
“Who are you?”  
“Well, now I’m Dr. Emily Smith your PA, formerly receptionist, before that I was a torture specialist. My code name was Nobody. It was in my first year at university when I saw a job offer on the billboard, they offered quite the money. I and my brother needed the money, we were on our own, you know. So I applied, there were lots of applicants, the selection process was long. Somehow I was selected, and finally it was revealed what the job is. I started training, turned out I had a talent for torture, physical and psychological too. So....I worked next to university, it wasn’t easy, one day in the Far-East, next day exams. I was a well kept secret, very few knew about me. When the former boss retired, he made sure that there was no record about my past. That’s how I ended up at the reception. Your uncle knows it of course, when your belongings arrived to the office, there was a note on top of it. ‘Look after him.’ So that’s what I am doing.”  
After six weeks Mycroft finally recovered, Uncle Rudy cleared the matters, so they could return home. His uncle was waiting for them at the airport.  
“Welcome back. Come my dear boy, let’s go home.”  
“Thank you, but I already have a place to stay. Thank you for looking after Sherlock. I’ll see you in the office.” they went home.


End file.
